‘I want Sarkozy to be right’

31 March 2007

Theodore Dalrymple, who lives in France, says that the presidential frontrunner faces an awesome range of problems — unsettlingly similar to those that will confront the Prime Minister unlucky enough succeed Gordon Brown

While the rioting continued, however, I kept an eye on the bourse. It continued to rise steadily. How come, I — who am no economist — naively asked myself. The country seemed on the brink of disintegration, if not now, then next time (and there will almost certainly be a next time). How could the bourse rise as if nothing at all were happening?

Many French companies, among them some of the best in the world, directed by the genuine elite turned out by the grandes écoles, were doing extremely well, with record profits. The explanation for this is that they are increasingly shifting their activities abroad: last year, France was the largest exporter of capital in the world. Whether this is good or bad for France I leave to others to decide.

Though we in Britain like to think of France as a very different country from our own, as the French think of Britain (when they think of it at all), many of the questions confronting the two countries are very similar. Will any of our politicians have the courage to face up to the wealth-consuming vested interests that they themselves have created, or will they just speak hard and carry the small stick?

If I were French, would I vote Sarko? I would, if only in the hope that he might prove my brother-in-law wrong, who says that in France serious reform comes only by violence. If he wins — not a foregone conclusion — he will be a canary in the long dark tunnel that will face any post-Brown government.